Smear tactics cannot be allowed to derail Khan, the true Londoner in the mayoral race

‘What does he really stand for?’ The answer is that he stands for London

Sadiq Khan, an amateur boxer since his teens, needs to come out fighting (Getty)

Let me introduce to you James Buckley, 61, a Tory on Rugby Borough Council, who walked free from court last Friday. He was charged with sending an “offensive” message under the Communications Act.

Four months ago, he sent a tweet disparaging the HQ of Labour’s London mayoral candidate, Sadiq Khan. It was “like a corner shop”, he wrote. He later explained that he meant the office was in Balham and not like Boris Johnson’s plush lair. Zac Goldsmith’s premises must surely be even more upmarket.

The magistrate decided the tweet was stupid, but not offensive. I feel it was both (not, of course, in the legal sense). Buckley paraded preposterous, crude snobbery and also verbally attacked corner shops (most owned and run by immigrants), striving Londoners, the working and middle classes and Balham. Though he will not make his mark on history, Buckley has, in his own, small way, done us all a big favour: he embodies all the reasons why we must now rebel against the upper-class takeover of our capital and country.

Brits today are ruled by an elected, wealthy oligarchy. Cameron, Osborne, Iain Duncan Smith and co have an unshakeable sense of entitlement. Johnson has treated London as his playground. Now they want Goldsmith to inherit the mantle. The author Hilary Mantel could write a fine novel about these power merchants, as devious as those in the Tudor court.

This isn’t a call to jejune class war. Some Tories – the Etonian Jesse Norman, for example – do not behave as if they own the state and our souls. If Jemima Khan were standing, I’d vote for her; she is an internationalist, committed to justice and, in fairness, bold too. But Goldsmith, her brother is a lackadaisical patrician who expects the riff-raff to give him their votes.

His followers smear his opponent, while he is kept above the fray. These character assassins either bluntly accuse Khan of being close to bad or mad Islamicists, or – more effectively – use the power of suggestion to make non-voters suspect Khan is a smart radical in disguise and also a commie Corbynite. This email shows how the latter is now part of Tory tactics: “In May, our city will make a crucial choice: between Zac’s Action Plan for a Greater London, or Sadiq Khan and Jeremy Corbyn using Greater London as a four-year experiment.” Polls show Khan is ahead of Goldsmith, so expect more poison and trashing. In the last fortnight, Chris Grayling and Michael Fallon have busied themselves warning voters about the upstart Muslim who would be mayor. Khan has spoken at events where radical preachers also spoke. Well, so what? I thought we believed in debate, in opposing ideas, in not silencing or avoiding those we disagree with.

Khan’s former brother-in-law apparently shared platforms with extremists. Goldsmith’s former brother-in-law, Imran Khan, also often appears with unsavoury radicals. What’s more, his father, Jimmy Goldsmith, mixed happily with extreme right-wingers such as Lord Lucan and John Aspinall. Does that disqualify Zac Goldsmith from office? No, but his disconnection from ordinary Londoners makes him unfit for the job.

Khan is an ordinary Londoner. He was one of eight children. His father, an immigrant from Pakistan, was a bus driver and his mother a seamstress. They lived in a council flat. Khan became a human rights lawyer and chair of Liberty. He is strategic, ambitious and driven. At times he has upset his allies – and me, too – because he changes his mind, senses the public mood and is expedient above all else. But he has never been misogynist, homophobic, anti-Semitic, anti-Western or an apologist for Islamic radicalism. He has argued against the Iraq war and 90-day detention without charge, and challenged his own party leadership. (I do not know him well, though have met him, and I am certainly not backing him because he is a Muslim.)

One senior Labour Party elder recently asked a journalist: “What does [Khan] really stand for?” The answer is that he stands for London. Indeed, he is part of the grand saga of this great capital.

London is a city built by strangers, a global hub, resonant with a multitude of voices and music, full of colour, vim, creativity, high-voltage energy, great inequalities and yet more social mobility than anywhere else in Great Britain. This is why Khan must be extra careful when it comes to appointments and relationships. One of his aides, Shueb Salar, has been suspended following revelations that, some years back, he sent some nasty tweets, presumably to impress the “bruvs”. Such mistakes are unforgiveable.

Khan, an amateur boxer since his teens, also needs to come out fighting. Blairite Tessa Jowell, who thought she would easily claim her place as mayoral candidate, has now finally endorsed him. Other disgruntled Labourites must step up too. This may be their only chance to secure big power over the next, lost decade.